Disc drives are used for data storage in modern electronic products ranging from digital cameras to computers and network systems. Typically, a disc drive includes a mechanical portion and an electronics portion in the form of a printed circuit board assembly that controls functions of the mechanical portion while providing a communication interface to a host being serviced by the disc drive.
Typically, the mechanical portion, or head-disc assembly, has a disc with a recording surface rotated at a constant speed by a spindle motor assembly and an actuator assembly positionably controlled by a closed loop servo system for use in accessing the stored data. The actuator assembly commonly supports a magneto resistive read/write head that writes data to and reads data from the recording surface. Normally, the magneto resistive read/write head uses an inductive element, or writer, to write data to and a magneto resistive element, or reader, to read data from the recording surface.
The disc drive market continues to place pressure on the industry for disc drives with increased capacities, higher data rates, improved adherence to form factor dimensions, heightened acoustical performance and lower costs. A key aspect of achieving lower costs is a reduction in the total part count used in producing the disc drive. Each component eliminated from use affects the material cost, labor cost and cost of overhead applied to the disc drive. Often, overhead cost associated with the procurement, receipt, inspection, and stocking, issuing and controlling material flow a component through manufacturing production operations far outweighs the price paid to a supplier for the component. Additionally, as growth continues in the use of disc drives within portable devices, consistency of compliance with form factor standards and minimum operating acoustics are features of the disc drive rising in importance.
As such, challenges remain and a need persists for effective techniques to reduce the number of components used to produce a disc drive, improve consistency of adherence to form factor standards and minimize operating acoustics of the disc drive. It is to this and other features and advantages set forth herein that embodiments of the present invention are directed.